Sonoma County CA Archives History - Books .....Early History And Settlement Of Sonoma County 1880
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Book Title: History Of Sonoma County
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT OF SONOMA COUNTY.
THE RUSSIAN, SPANISH AND AMERICAN OCCUPATION.
In those old days, when Spain was all powerful on land and sea; when her
fleets and subjects were to be found penetrating territories and oceans which
existed merely in legends almost too fabulous to be credited, one of her
navigators, in the month of October, 1775, Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la
Bodega y Quadra, in His Majesty's ship the Sonora, touched at a bay on the
coast, which he carefully explored, and called after himself—this is the Bodega
bay of to-day. We are told by historians that the English Admiral, Sir Francis
Drake, landed just below the coast line of Sonoma, in the year 1579, while,
thirty-seven years prior to this date, Cape Mendocino had been discovered by
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who named it in honor of the "illustrious Senor Antonio
de Mendoza," a Viceroy, and patron of the voyageur.
On September 17, 1776, the Presidio and Mission of San Francisco were
founded, on what was then the extreme border of California, the former in a
manner being a frontier command having a jurisdiction which extended to the
farthest limits northwards of Spanish discovery. How the arts and sciences have
bridged time! What do these comparatively few years in a nation's life show ?
They speak for themselves! San Francisco to-day is a marvel! Short though her
life has been she has worked wonders; to-day she is the centre of civilization
as regards the western portion of this vast Continent; she is the heart which
sends pulsations through the different commercial arteries of the coast; the
throbbings of her veins are felt from Behring's Straits to those of Magellan;
across the oceans the influence of her system is known, while at home she is
looked up to as the youth is whose care in the future will be the old, the sick,
and the maimed.
Bodega bay having been already visited, a voyage of discovery was undertaken
by Captain Quiros, to ascertain if there was water communication connecting it
with the bay of San Francisco, being led to this, presumably, on the idea that
the peninsula which juts into the Pacific and forms one side of the Golden Gate,
now comprising Marin county, was an island. Captain Quiros left San Francisco in
September, 1776, and gaining the entrance of the Petaluma creek, followed its
many sinuosities as far as he could, but ultimately returned without finding the
watercourse which he sought. Thus was the first trip into what is now known as
Sonoma county made. This undertaking was one requiring no doubt a vast amount of
time, labor, and endurance, as well as caution, for even at the present time,
the mouths of the creeks which flow into the San Pablo bay are difficult to
detect, what then must it have been to those explorers who had to find the
landmarks and fix them for all time! As we fly along the bays, rivers, creeks,
and railroads of our State, we are prone to gaze on either hand and view with
charmed eye and contented mind the mile3 upon miles of cultivated fields and the
thousands of happy homes we pass, taking all as an accepted fact, at the same
time totally forgetful of those intrepid men who first had the hardihood to
penetrate into them when unknown wilds, thus paving the way for generations yet
unborn, and by their labor assuring both peace and plenty.
In the year 1793 the British Government was still in the habit of keeping a
fleet of observation cruising along the Pacific shores, and on an occasion a
party of Indians reported that the\ had actually anchored in Bodega bay. Upon
receipt of this intelligence, instructions were sent to Governor Arrillaga, by
the Viceroy of Mexico, to take prompt and energetic steps for the assertion and
protection of Spanish rights, one of the measures consequently adopted being the
construction of a redoubt mounted with four guns at Bodega, and the making a
road to facilitate the transportation of supplies inland, a task of no mean
engineering difficulty. It was found, however, that the English had taken no
positive steps toward the permanent occupation which had caused the alarm,
therefore the battery was dismantled after a time, and the guns removed to
Monterey.
A new era now commenced on the Pacific Coast.
The Russians, to whom then belonged all that territory now known as Alaska,
had found their country of almost perpetual cold, without facilities for the
cultivation of those fruits and cereals Which are necessary to the maintenance
of life; of game there was an inexhaustible supply; still, a variety was wanted.
Thus, ships were dispatched [sic] along the coast in quest of a spot where a
station might be established and those wants supplied, at the same time bearing
in mind the necessity of choosing a location easy of access to the head-quarters
of their fur-hunters in Russian America. In a voyage of this nature, Bodega was
visited in January, 1811, by Alexander Koskoff, who took possession of the place
on the fragile pleas that he had been refused a supply of water at Yerba Buena
(San Francisco), and that he had obtained by right of purchase from the Indians
a small tract of land along the margin of the bay. Here he remained for a while,
and to Bodega gave the name of Romanzoff, calling the stream, now known as
Russian river, Slavianka. Koskoff, on account of having a wooden leg, received
from the Spaniards the sobriquet of "Pie de Palo." General Vallejo, in a
remarkably elaborate address on the early history of Sonoma, delivered at Santa
Rosa on July 4, 1876, on the occasion of the Centennial celebration, remarks:
"As the new-comers came without permission from the Spanish Government, they may
be termed the pioneer 'squatters' of California."
The King of Spain, it should be remembered, claimed all territory north to
the Fuca Straits. Therefore, on Governor Arguello receiving the intelligence of
the Russian occupation of Bodega, he reported the circumstance, as in duty
bound, to the Viceroy, Revilla-Gigedo, who returned dispatches [sic] ordering
the Muscovite intruder to depart. The only answer received to this communication
was a verbal message, saying that the orders of the Viceroy of Spain had been
received and transmitted to St. Petersburg for the action of the Czar. Here,
however, the matter did not rest. There arrived in the harbor of San Francisco,
in 1816, in the Russian brig "Rurick," a scientific expedition, under the
command of Otto von Kotzebue. In accordance with instructions received from the
Spanish authorities, Governor Sola proceeded to San Francisco, visited Kotzebue,
and, as directed by the Government, offered his aid in furtherance of the
endeavors to advance scientific research on the coast. At the same time he
complained of Koskoff; informed him of the action taken on either side, an<5
laid particular emphasis on the fact that the Russians had been occupants of
Spanish territory for five years. Upon this complaint, Don Gervasio Arguello was
despatched to Bodega as the bearer of a message from Kotzebue to Koskoff,
requiring his presence in San Francisco. This messenger was the first to bring a
definite report of the Russian settlement there, which then consisted of
twenty-five Russians and eighty Kodiac Indians. On the 28th day of October, a
conference was held on board the "Rurick," in the harbor of San Francisco,
between Arguello, Kotzebue and Koskoff; there being also present Jose Maria
Estudillo, grandfather of that worthy official who was State Treasurer in 1876,
and Luis Antonio Arguello, afterwards Governor of California; a
naturalist,'named Chamisso, acting as interpreter. It may here be mentioned that
the Russian chief made the somewhat perilous voyage from Fort Ross to San
Francisco in the frail baidarka, or skin boat, then much in vogue for lengthy
journeys by water. No new development was made at this interview; for Koskoff
claimed he was acting in strict conformity with instructions from the Governor
of Sitka, therefore Kotzebue declined to take any action in the matter,
contenting himself simply with the promise that the entire affair should be
submitted to St. Petersburg, to await the instructions of the Emperor of Russia.
Thus the matter then rested. Communications subsequently made produced a like
unsatisfactory result, and the Russians were permitted to remain for a
lengthened period possessors of the land they had so arbitrarily appropriated.
So far indeed was it from the intention of the unwelcome Muscovite to move,
that we find them extending their trapping expeditions along the coast, to the
north and south, and for a considerble [sic] distance inland. At Fort Ross they
constructed a quadrilateral stockade, which was deemed strong enough to resist
the possible attacks of Spaniards or Indians. It had within its walls quarters
for the commandant, officers, and men, an arsenal, store-houses, a Greek church
surmounted with a cross and provided with a chime of bells, besides several
other erections for the use of mechanics, of which there were a number, the
remains of whose trades were in existence at the time of the first American
settlement. The stockade was about ten feet high, pierced with embrasures and
furnished with carronades; in addition to these, there were situated at opposite
corners two bastions of two stories high, armed with six pieces of artillery.
There was no lack of vegetables and fruits, for the gardens were of considerable
proportions, and the orchard vast in extent and well filled with trees, some of
which, now more than half a century old, are still flourishing and bear abundant
crops. At this time, too, they made considerable annual shipments of grain to
Sitka from Fort Ross and Bodega. Thus we may safely assert, without much fear of
contradiction, that to Sonoma county belongs the honor of erecting the first
church in California, north of the bay of San Francisco; but this is not all; to
her belongs the credit of first planting fruit, raising grain, and working in
leather, wood, and iron, within the limits of the same territory. With these
industries in hand, there is not the remotest doubt that the Russians looked to
a future permanent possession of Northern California; the doctrine propounded in
1823 by President Monroe, that " the American continents were henceforth not to
be considered as subjects for foreign colonization by any European power," put
an end to Russian land grabs on this part of the coast.
Captain John Hall visited Bodega and other parts of this coast in 1822. On June
8th, when at Bodega, he was visited by the Russian Governor, who brought with
him, Captain Hall tells us, " two fine fat sheep, a large tub of butter, and
some milk, which was very acceptable after a long voyage, and gave us proof at
once of the Governor's hospitality, and of the abundance and cheapness of
provisions. The price of a bullock at that time was twelve dollars, and of a
sheep two dollars; vegetables were also plentiful and in their proper season."
Let us for a moment return to the earlier Russian times. As soon as their
presence at Bodega was made known to the Spanish authorities, by the Indians,
two non-commissioned officers, Sergeant Jose Sanchez and Corporal Heirara,
undertook the rather hazardous task of reconnoitering the Russian establishment.
This duty they succeeded in accomplishing, disguised as Indians. On their way
back they captured a band of horses, which were swam across the bay of San
Francisco behind canoes, at Playita de los Caballos, named so from this
circumstance—now Lime Point. It was apprehended at this juncture, that an
attempt would be made by the Russians to get a foothold on San Francisco bay;
therefore the time-honored Fiery Cross was called into requisition. In such an
event, immense piles of brushwood fired on the prominent mountain tops would
inform the soldiery of a demonstration, which, however, was never made.
In the year 1822, Mexico having won her independence, the regime of old Spain
and her dashing cavaliers ceased, California giving in her adherence to the new
state of things. The federal constitution of 1824 was afterwards adopted, and
the government of California vested in a Political Chief, aided by a Council
known as the Territorial Deputation.
With an armed escort under Ensign Jose Sanchez, mounted on the horses
mentioned above, Padre Jose Altimira and Don Francisco Castro started on an
expedition to select a suitable and convenient site whereon to establish a new
mission, whither it was proposed to transfer the Mission of San Francisco de
Asis. The Padre and his party left San Raphael, where a mission had been already
founded, on the 25th of June, 1823, and during the day passed the position now
occupied by the city of Petaluma, then called by the Spaniards "Punta de los
Esteros," and known to the Indians as "Chocuali," that night encamping on the
"Arroyo Lema," where the large adobe on the Petaluma Rancho was afterwards
constructed by General M. G. Vallejo. Here a day's halt would appear to have
been called, in order to take a glance at the beautiful country and devise means
of further progress. On the 27th they reached the famous "Laguna de Tolly," now,
alas, nothing but a place, it having fallen into the hands of a German gentleman
of marked utilitarian principles, who has drained and reclaimed it, and planted
it with potatoes. Here the expedition took a northeasterly route, and entering
the Sonoma valley, which Father Altimira states was then so called by former
Indian residents; the party encamped on the arroyo of "Pulpula," where J. A.
Poppe, a merchant of Sonoma, has a large fish-breeding establishment, stocked
with carp brought from Rhinefelt, in Germany, in August, 1871. The Holy father's
narrative of the beauties of Sonoma valley, as seen by the new-comers, are so
graphically portrayed by himself that we cannot refrain from quoting his own
words: "At about 3 P. M.," (June 28,1823) "leaving our camp and our boat on the
slough near by, we started to explore, directing our course northwestward across
the plain of Sonoma, until we reached a stream (Sonoma river) of about five
hundred plumas of water, crystalline, and most pleasing to the taste, flowing
through a grove of beautiful and useful trees. The stream flows from some hills
which inclose the plain, and terminate it on the north. We went on, penetrating
a broad grove of oaks; the trees were lofty and robust, offering an external
source of utility, both for firewood and carriage material. This forest was
about three leagues long from east to west and a league and a half wide from
north to south. The plain is watered by another arroyo still more copious and
pleasant than the former, flowing from west to east, but traveling northward
from the centre of the plain. We explored this evening as far as the daylight
permitted. The permanent springs, according to the statement of those who have
seen them in the extreme dry season, ARE almost innumerable. No one can doubt
the benignity of the Sonoma climate after noting the plants, the lofty and shady
trees — alders, poplars, ash, laurel, and others — and especially the abundance
and luxuriance of the wild grapes. We observed also that the launch may come
up the creek to where a settlement can be founded, truly a most convenient
circumstance. We saw from these and other facts that Sonoma is a most desirable
site for a mission."
Let us here note who are now located on the places brought prominently
forward by Padre Altimira. The hills which inclose the valley and out of whose
bosom the Sonoma river springs, is now occupied by the residence and vineyards
of Mr. Edwards. The forest mentioned, covered the present site of the
Leavenworth vineyards, the Hayes' estate, and the farms of Wratten, Carriger,
Harrison, Craig, Herman, Wohler, Hill, Stewart, Warfleld, Krous & Williams, La
Motte, Hood, Kohler, Morris, and others. The second stream mentioned as flowing
northward from the centre of the plains, is the " Olema," or flour-mill stream,
on which Colonel George F. Hooper resides, while the locality in which he states
are innumerable springs, is that tract of country where now are located the
hacienda of Lachryma Montis, the residence of General M. G. Vallejo, and the
dwellings and vineyards of Haraszthy, Gillen, Tichner, Dressel, Winchel,
Gundlach, Rufus, Snyder, Nathanson, and the ground of the Buena Vista
Vinicultural Society. The head of navigation noted is the place since called St.
Louis, but usually known as the Embarcadero.
Padre Altimira continued his survey to "Huichica," at present the property of
Streeter and Borel, and after most carefully exploring the Napa valley, climbed
the Suisun range of mountains, and there found stone of excellent quality and in
such large quantities that of it "a new Rome might be built." The party having
extended their explorations to the eastward for ten leagues, returned to the
Sonoma valley on the evening of the 1st of July.
We once more take up the Father's diary: "We descended into the plain, and in
less than one-fourth of a league we found six hundred and seven springs of
water; some among willows, others covered with tules, the water being fresh,
sweet and of agreeable taste." Further explorations were made in different
directions, but no site was found so suitable as that of Sonoma. Therefore, on
July 4, 1823, a cross was planted by Father Altimira very near the spot where
the Catholic church now stands. Rites according to the Church of Rome were
performed for the first time in Sonoma county, the place was named New San
Francisco, and the third settlement in the county founded. The first two
settlements, however arbitrary the proceedings may have been, it will be
remembered were made at Bodega and Ross by the Russians, at which latter place
they had also built a church.
The construction of the mission buildings was commenced at once, Altimira
writing to Governor Arguello under date "New San Francisco, August 31, 1823: We
chose a site and began work. In four days we have cut one hundred redwood beams
with which to build a granary. A ditch has been dug and running water brought to
the place where we are living." (Note— Now Mr. Pickett's vineyard.) "We are
making a corral, to which, by the grace of God, our cattle will be brought
to-morrow. We are all highly pleased with the site, and all agree that it offers
more advantages than any other place between here and San Diego." On completion
of the mission San Francisco Solano was chosen its patron saint. We will
hereafter show how the original name of Sonoma was revived, on the establishment
of this point as a "comandancia."
Three years after the events above recorded, in the year 1826, the new
mission was destroyed by the Indians, Padre Altimira barely escaping with his
life. He soon after left this portion of the country for Santa Barbara, in
company with Father Antonio Ripoll, on board of an American vessel commanded by
Captain Joseph Steele. Under Padre Fortuni, the successor of Altimira, the
mission once more was built, the protection afforded by the Presidio at the
Golden Gate keeping the hostile natives in check, he remaining in charge until
building in a more permanent shape commenced in 1830. The last-named Father was
relieved by Padre Gutierrez, who remained at San Francisco Solano until the
promulgation by the Mexican Government, in 1834, of the decree of
secularization, consequent on which was the overthrow of the authority of the
Fathers, the liberation and dispersion of the Indians, and the partition of the
mission lands and cattle, with a result disastrous in the extreme to the
aboriginals, whatever it may have been to the Mexican population.
It is stated, and with every semblance of historical correctness, that of
some of the missions, which in the year 1834 numbered fifteen hundred souls, in
1842 counted only a few hundreds. In these short eight years the numbers of the
mission at San Raphael decreased from thirteen hundred to seventy. There are
those, the favorers of the secularization scheme, who contend that the
diminution in numbers was the result of a decimating scourge of small-pox, said
to have been contracted from a subordinate Mexican officer who had caught the
disease at Ross, in the year 1837. Be this as it may, the officer recovered, and
sixty thousand Indians are said to have perished in what is now known as the
counties of Sonoma, Solano and Napa. So rapidly did they die, that it was found
necessary to entomb the victims in huge pits, while others of them abandoned the
land, which to them had become accursed by the presence of the foreign
intruders. Thus have the aboriginal Californians passed away, and now live only
in the memory of the few pioneers who were their contemporaries.
In June, 1834, it had been decided that certain colonists known as the
"Cosmopolitan Company" should be despatched from Mexico, under the direction of
Jose Maria Hijas, and one Padres, to settle in California. Governor Figueroa
therefore personally conducted exploring expeditions which extended to the
Russian establishment at Ross, in search of a suitable site whereon to found a
settlement. A proper location, answering all desired wants, was selected on Mark
Wast creek, then called "Potiquiyomi," on land now owned by Mrs. Henry Mizer,
near to a well-known redwood tree, which is still standing. The site was quickly
divided off into lots, a plaza laid out, and the place given the name of Santa
Ana y Farias, in honor of the then President and Vice-President of Mexico; the
Governor himself, on completion of these duties, returning to Monterey.
The month of March, 1835, witnessed the arrival at San Francisco Solano of
the colonists, who as a temporary measure were quartered in the mission
buildings, until more definite arrangements should be completed. On leaving
Mexico, strong inducements had been held out to these emigrants. They had been
told of the glories of the country, the richness of its soil and the certain
accumulation of wealth, in but a few years at best. On arrival on the scene of
action, they found their prospects less flattering than they had been led to
expect, therefore a rancorous feeling commenced to manifest itself. Hijas and
Padres, the chiefs of the colony, supported by Berduzco, Lara and Torres, bore '
an itching palm ' for power, and soon evinced signs of discontent and rebellion,
which were with difficulty suppressed by General M. G. Vallejo, who had been
left with some soldiers in command of the new settlement. The mutinous designs
of Hijas and Padres, being made known to Governor Figueroa, they were suspended
from the office of Directors, and their persons ordered, under date March 16th,
to be seized, and the arms and other property of the colony to be taken
possession of by the military. On the following da}r the malcontents were
apprehended and sent to San Francisco under escort. "The weapons," General
Vallejo says, "served later to arm a company of Suisun Indians, who did duty as
a body-guard of my faithful ally, Prince Solano, head of the powerful tribe of
Suisunes. This guard of honor was put under the command of Sergeant Sabas
Fernandez."
Vallejo, finding himself isolated in the Santa Rosa valley, and hard pressed
by hostile Indian tribes, with direct communication between himself and the
headquarters at San Francisco cut off, reported this condition to the
authorities, and was thereupon directed to establish himself in some position
nearer the bay. It was then that the town of Santa Ana y Farias was abandoned
and the site of the mission of San Francisco Solano chosen; here he established
the military command of the northern frontier of California, laid out the Pueblo
as it now exists, and resuscitated the almost forgotten but still harmonious
name of Sonoma, which that city, the prolific valley, and magnificent county
still bears.
Between the years 1835 and 1840, we have it on the indisputable authority of
General Vallejo, there came and established themselves in the new settlement and
the surrounding Sonoma valley, the following persons with their families:
Mariano G. Vallejo, Salvador Vallejo, Julio Carrillo, Rafael Garcia, Cayetano
Juraez, Fernando Felix, Ignacio Pacheco, Nazario Berreyesa, Francisco Berreyesa,
Manuel Vaca, Felipe Pena, Lazaro Pena, Juan Miranda, Gregorio Briones, Joaquin
Carrillo, Ramon Carrillo, Domingo Suenz, Pablo Pacheco, Bartolo Bohorques,
Francisco Duarte, Juan Padilla, Marcos Juarez, and Rosalino Olivera. To these
were added a few years later, the following foreigners, who settled in different
parts of the county and whose locale we will hereafter attempt to lay before the
reader: Victor Prudon, French; George Yount, American; John Wilson, James Scott,
Mark West, Scotch; J. B. R. Cooper, English; Edward Manuel McIntosh, Irish;
James Black, James Dawson, Edward Bale, English; Tim. Murphy, Irish; Henry D.
Fitch and Jacob P. Leese, American. All these, with the single exception of
McIntosh, were married to daughters of the soil—"Hijas del Pais."
Frequent expeditions were conducted against the Indians during this period,
more especially toward the northeast, on the Sacramento river, in the north in
the Clear Lake region, and in the northwest on Russian river. In spite of these
troubles, the extension of agricultural industries and the raising of cattle,
sheep, and horses, was being gradually accomplished; the people had to live,
however, in a perpetual state of preparation, keeping themselves constantly
under arms and subject to the call of the commandant, for they were surrounded
by thousands of hostile natives, who took advantage of every opportunity to
attack a people whom they deemed their natural enemies, and the ruthless
destroyers of their homes. At that time the entire country abounded with game,
such as deer, bears, mountain sheep, hares, rabbits, geese, quail, etc., and the
streams were well stocked with many kinds of fish. Besides these, the fertile
valleys and hillsides grew an abundance of edible seeds and wild fruits, which
were garnered by the Indians and, by them, held in great store. Such means of
existence being so easily obtained, is perhaps a reason for the wonderful
disinclination of Indians to perform any kind of labor. Indeed, what need was
there that they should toil, when beneficent Nature had, with a generosity which
knew no stint, placed at their feet an unlimited supply of health-giving food!
We would now ask the reader to return with us for a short time to record the
further doings of the Muscovite settlers. For upwards of thirty years they
remained in undisputed possession of Ross and Bodega, under the successive
gubernatorial regimes of Koskoff, Klebnikoff, Kostromitinoff, and Rotscheff, the
latter of whom, with a party of Russians, visited Mount Mayacmas, on the summit
of which they affixed a copper-plate with an inscription. In the year 1853 this
plate was discovered by Dr. T. A. Hylton, and a copy of it preserved by Mrs. H.
L. Weston, of Petaluma, by whose courtesy we are enabled to reproduce it. The
metal slab is octagonal in shape, and hears the following words in Russian:
"RUSSIANS, 1841 JUNE. E. L. VOZNISENSKI iii, E. L. CHERNICH."
This legend we referred to Mr. Charles Mitchell Grant, of Oakland, a
gentleman long resident in Siberia, and eminently capable in matters connected
with the Russian language and people, and from him received the following notes:
" iii, means that Voznisenski is the third of the same name in his family,
the other two being still living, or, at any rate, alive when he was born.
Evidently two Russian sailors; the first is a Polish name, the second a name
common in Little Russia." To this mountain Rotscheff gave the name of St.
Helena, calling it so after his wife, the Princess de Gagarin, who was then at
Fort Ross. General Vallejo relates the following romantic episode in connection
with the fair Princess: "The beauty of this lady excited so ardent a passion in
the breast of Prince Solano, Chief of all the Indians about Sonoma, that he
formed a plan to capture, by force or stratagem, the object of his love; and he
might very likely have succeeded had I not heard of his intention in time to
prevent its execution." On his return from Mount St. Helena, Rotscheff
dispatched herds of cattle and sheep from Ross and occupied a certain tract of
land to which they gave the name of "Muny" or "Muniz"; this is what is known as
Russian Gulch, and now occupied by the Rule and Myers' ranchos.
We now wind up the Russian occupation, in the lucid words of the veteran
General: " Since my appointment to the command of the frontier, in 1835, I had
been directed by my Government to advance our colony northwestward, and by
virtue of the powers with which I was invested I made grants of land to Messrs.
McIntosh, Black, and Dawson, who had other foreigners in their service. After
the advance of the Russians continual disputes arose between oar colonists and
theirs, and as my settlers were ready for a quarrel and were not sparing of
those 'energetic words' well known in the English idiom, our neighbors gradually
retired towards Ross, and left the country in possession of their rivals, who,
like good Anglo-Saxons, knew how to maintain their rights. Matters constantly
became more complicated, until 1840, when Colonel Kupreanoff, Governor of Sitka,
came to San Francisco, and many official communications passed between him and
myself as Military Commander of California. The result was that the Russians
prepared to abandon their California territory, and proposed to sell me their
property. I was obliged to decline, because they insisted on selling also the
land which was already the property of my Government. Finding that I would not
yield on the point, they applied to Governor Alvarado, at Monterey, and received
from him a similar reply. Then they applied to John A. Sutter, who, in 1840,
made the purchase. (For particulars of this transaction we refer the reader to
the history of Bodega Township). California was at last freed from guests who
had always been regarded by us as intruders. Yet it is but just to say that in
all mercantile transactions the Russians were notable for strict honesty, as, in
social intercourse, for hospitality and affability of manners towards our
people- They took immense numbers of beaver and seal skins during their stay,
and left the country almost without fur-bearing animals."
The tract of land granted by General Vallejo to McIntosh, Black and Dawson,
who had come to the country with Captain John Cooper as sailors somewhere about
1830, was that now known as the Estero Americano, and Canada de Jonive. Black
afterwards disposed of his interest to the other two, and removed to Marin
county, where he permanently located. In 1833, Dawson and McIntosh applied for
citizenship to the Mexican Government, and in November of that year the latter
went to Monterey for the purpose of getting the grant confirmed. He got the
papers made out in his own name, leaving that of Dawson out entirely. At this
ungenerous conduct, Dawson became much incensed. He first inflicted personal
chastisement upon his quondam partner, and next sawed the house, which they had
conjointly constructed, in two, and removed what he considered as his share
entirely off the rancho and planted it beyond the boundary, and to day it is
still used as a portion of the dwelling of F. G. Blume at Freestone. On the
establishing of his residence, Dawson applied for and received that tract known
as the Pogolome grant, and to him is the honor of having first attempted the
manufacture of lumber; for we learn that as early as the year 1834 he had enough
on hand, sawed in a pit with a long rip-saw, to build a house. The pits are
still to be seen near the residence of the late Jasper O'Farrell.
We have already shown that the Russians had taken their departure. This had
scarcely been satisfactorily effected than a new element, more formidable in its
probable results, presented itself. In the first five years of the decade
commencing with 1840, there began to settle in the vast Californian valleys that
intrepid band of pioneers, who, having scaled the Sierra Nevadas with their
wagons, trains and cattle, began the civilizing influences of progress on the
Pacific Coast. Many of them had left their homes in the Atlantic and Southern
States with the avowed intention of proceeding direct to Oregon. On arrival at
Fort Hall, however, they heard glowing accounts of the salubrity of the
Califomian climate and the fertility of its soil; they therefore turned their
heads southward and steered for the wished-for haven. At length, after weary
days of toil and anxiety, fatigued and foot-sore, the promised land was gained.
And what was it like? The country in what valley soever we wot was an
interminable grain field; mile upon mile, and acre after acre wild oats grew in
marvellous profusion, in many places to a prodigious height—one great glorious
green of wild waving corn—high over head of the wayfarer on foot, and
shoulder-high with the equestrian; wild flowers of every prismatic shade charmed
the eye, while they vied with each other in the gorgeousness of their colors,
and blended into dazzling splendor. One breath of wind and the wide emerald
expanse rippled itself into space, while with a heavier breeze came a swell
whose rolling waves beat against the mountain sides, and, being hurled back,
were lost in the far-away horizon; shadow pursued shadow in a long merry chase.
The air was filled with the hum of bees, the chirrup of birds, and an
overpowering fragrance from the various plants weighted the air. The hill sides,
overrun as they were with a dense mass of tangled jungle, were hard to
penetrate, while in some portions the deep dark gloom of the forest trees lent
relief to the eye. The almost boundless range was intersected throughout with
divergent trails, whereby the traveller moved from point to point, progress
being as it were in darkness on account of the height of the oats on either
side, and rendered dangerous in the valleys by the bands of untamed cattle,
sprung from the stock introduced by the missions and early Spanish settlers.
These found food and shelter on the plains during the night; at dawn they
repaired to the higher grounds to chew "the cud and bask in the sunshine. At
every yard cayotes sprang from beneath the feet of the voyager. The hissing of
snakes, the frightened rush of lizards, all tended to heighten the sense of
danger, while the flight of quail and other birds, the nimble run of the rabbit,
and the stampede of elk and antelope, which abounded in thousands, added to the
charm, causing him, be he whosoever he may, pedestrian or equestrian, to feel
the utter insignificance of man, the "noblest work of God." In the year 1840,
there arrived in the Russian River valley, from San Diego, Cyrus Alexander, to
take charge of the Sotoyome grant, the estate of Captain H. D. Fitch, the terms
of his contract with Fitch being that he was to superintend the property, and
its stock, and at the end of four years receive two leagues of the ranch in
payment. His first duty was to define the boundaries of the grant with the aid
of the Mexican authorities. Surveying by the Mexicans at this early date was
very different from the scientific knowledge which is found necessary now. In
the first place, the lariat was substituted for the chain, while the pins used
were long enough to be handled and placed in position from on horseback. The
manner of effecting a survey was in this wise: The Surveyor would set his
compass and take the bearings of a high hill or large tree at the extreme range
of his vision; the word would then be given to his satellites, who would urge
their horses to a fast trot, or sometimes to a hand-gallop, in the direction
indicated, and without stopping they would draw the pins here, and set them
there, thus continuing until the line had been run. Under these circumstances,
it is not wonderful that such surveys lacked anything like mathematical
precision, and have been the primary cause of the many bitter feuds that have
since obtained, some of which are still unsettled.
Mention has hitherto been frequently made of the aboriginal Indians, without
any attempt at a description of their appearance, manners, and customs. Place
aux dames! The toilet of the women was more pretentious than that of the males,
consisting only of a scanty apron of fancy skins or feathers, extending as far
as the knees. Those of them who still remained in single blessedness wore a
bracelet around the ankle or arm near the shoulder, an ornament usually made of
bone or fancy wood. Polygamy was a recognized institution, chiefs generally
possessing eleven wives, sub-chiefs nine, and ordinary warriors two, or more,
according to their wealth or property. Indian-like they would fight among
themselves long before the Spaniards came, and bloody fights they often were.
Their weapons were bows and arrows, clubs, and spears, with which they were very
adroit; they also had a kind of helmet made of skins. In times of peace they
kept up the martial' spirit by sham fights or tournaments. In these battles the
women participated, not as actual belligerents, but as a sanitary brigade; they
followed their warriors, supplied them with provisions, and attended to them
when wounded, carrying their pappooses on their backs at the same time. These
Indians believed in a future existence and an all-powerful Great Spirit; but
they likewise had faith in a Cucusuy or Mischief-maker, who, it was thought,
took delight in their annoyance, while to him, and his agency, they attributed
all their sickness and other misfortunes. They dwelt in miserable camps or
rancheries. A rancheria, or small Indian town consists of certain "wickeup" or
wigwams for living in, and one sweat-house. These last are usually constructed
near a running stream. The Digger Indians, who occupied a considerable portion
of this country, adopted the plan of digging into the earth some distance, and
when attaining the desired depth would construct, around the excavation, a house
of adobe clay, fashioned like a bee-hive, perfectly air-tight and tapering to a
cone. As a means of entrance and exit, an aperture of sufficient size to permit
of the occupant's crawling through, was made, and so arranged that it could be
easily closed. Within these ovens a fire would be lit, the Indian would strip,
roll himself in his blanket and sleep, asphyxia being prevented by a small hole
in the apex of the cone, which drew off the smoke and noxious gases.
While on the subject of Indians it may not be out of place here to relate the
following legend, which bears upon one of the prominent landmarks in this
section of California: When the Spaniards were crossing the mountain called
Bolgones, where an Indian spirit was supposed to dwell, having a cave for his
haunt, he was disturbed by the approach of some soldiers, then on their way to
Sonoma, and, emerging from the gloom, arrayed in all his feathers and war paint,
with very little else by way of costume, motioned them to depart, threatening by
gesticulations to weave a spell around them, but the sturdy warriors were not to
be thus easily awed. They beckoned him to approach; this invitation the wizard
declined; then one of the men secured him with his lasso to see if he were
"goblin damn'd " or ordinary mortal. Even now he would not speak but continued
his mumblings, when an extra tug caused him to shout and pray to be released. On
relating this experience, the Indians pointed to Bolgones, calling it the
mountain of the Cucusuy, which the Spaniards translated into Monte Diablo—hence
the name of the mountain which is the meridian of scientific exploration in
California.
In the early days, probably in 1840, certainly not later than 1841, a man by
the name of Stephen Smith, master of a bark called the "George and Henry," came
to this coast on a trading expedition. He hailed from Massachusetts, of which
State he was a native, and brought with him a cargo of sugar, syrup, tobacco,
cotton and other cloths, besides whatever else could be disposed of readily in
the California market at that time, receiving in return for these a cargo of
hides, horns and tallow. While lying in the bay of San Francisco, he doubtless
saw the Russians as they came there for the purpose of sailing to Sitka, and of
course heard all about the country and the improvements which they had left
behind. It is also more than likely that he took a cruise up that way for the
purpose of spying out the land, and doubtless cast his anchor and furled his
sails in the quiet and secure harbor of Bodega bay. He then evidently went
ashore and visited the entire section of country immediately adjacent thereto.
Here he saw the giant redwoods, and recognized the fact that in them was the
lumber which generations yet unborn would use in the construction of homes.
Nearly all the lumber then consumed on this coast was imported from the Sandwich
Islands, and the establishment of a sawmill here, within five miles of a
splendid shipping point, which was within twenty-four hours sail of San
Francisco bay, would certainly be laying the foundation for a princely fortune.
He also conceived the idea of constructing a grist-mill in connection with his
sawmill. He then hied himself away to the Atlantic seaboard with his head full
of his great project. At least two years were consumed in this trip. While in
Baltimore, having disposed of his cargo of hides, tallow, etc., he purchased a
complete outfit for a steam grist and sawmill, also a cargo of assorted
merchandise. He then set sail for California. On his way out he stopped at
Pieta, Peru, where he was united in marriage with Donna Manuel la Torres, a lady
of remarkable refinement and intellect, and at that time sixteen years of age.
It is apropos to remark here that Captain Smith was sixty-one years of age at
the time of his marriage with Donna Manuella. This was his second marriage, his
first wife having died some years previous. In Baltimore, he engaged one Henry
Hagler as ship's carpenter. While at Pieta he engaged the services of William A.
Streeter as engineer in his new mill. At Valparaiso he secured the services of
David D. Dutton, now of Vacaville, Solano county, for the purpose of
constructing his mill. He also somewhere on the trip obtained the services of
Philip Crawley and a man named Bridges. On the 27th of March, 1843, Captain
Smith weighed anchor in the harbor of Pieta, setting sail for California. He
brought also with him from Pieta his wife's mother, Mrs. Minunga Torres, and her
brother, Manuel Torres., now a resident of Martinez, Contra Costa county. They
reached Monterey about the middle of April following. Here the vessel was
entered at the custom house. He then sailed for Santa Cruz, at which place
lumber was purchased and taken on board for the construction of the mill
building- He then came to San Francisco bay and anchored off Clark's Point.
While here he engaged the the [sic] services of James Hudspeth, now of Green
valley, Analy township, Sonoma county, Alexander Copeland, now in the southern
part of the State, Nathaniel Coombs, lately of Napa county, but now deceased,
and John Daubinbiss, now of Santa Cruz county. These men went on board of the
ship, and all set sail for Bodega bay, where he arrived sometime in the month of
September, 1843. Upon his arrival here a new difficulty arose. Bidwell, Sutter's
agent, refused Smith the privilege of landing and of establishing his mill on
any part of the land which had been previously occupied by the Russians, and
over which, as Sutter's agent, he supposed he had dominion. But the hardy old
tar was not to be thwarted in his enterprise after waiting two long years for
its fulfillment. Therefore he took his men and began at once to get out timber
for his mill buildings. When Bidwell protested, the captain informed him that he
proposed to proceed with his enterprise, and warned him not to interfere.
Bidwell at once returned to New Helvetia, and reported to Sutter what had
occurred. E. V. Sutter, son of Captain John A. Sutter, is our authority for the
above statements; but injustice to Captain Smith we will say, that the Mexican
government did not at that time, nor has it at any time since, recognized the
Russian claim, nor that of Sutter, to the tract in question; and knowing this,
Captain Smith was not doing an unrighteous deed when he took semi-forcible
possession of the land. That the Mexican government approved of his course is
certainly substantiated by the fact that it granted him eight leagues of the
same territory a few years later. Captain Smith, in all his dealings with men,
was characterized as the soul of honor, hence was incapable of committing any
high-handed crimes.
We will now take a glance at this pioneer steam grist and saw mill during its
course of construction, that we may get a clear idea of its machinery and
capacities. It was situated at the foot of a hill, on the brow of which grew the
very initial trees of the great redwood belt, and was nearly one mile, in a
northwesterly direction from the present site of the town of Bodega Corners. An
excavation about five feet deep and thirty by fifty feet was made. In the bottom
of this a well was dug, for the purpose of furnishing the water supply to the
boilers, which were of the most simple pattern known. They were three in number,
each being thirty-six feet in length, and two and one-half feet in diameter.
They were single-Hue boilers, having three openings, all in one end, one through
which the water entered the boiler, near the bottom, one through which the steam
passed to the engine, near the top, and the large "man hole" in the centre of
the end which was fastened down with bolts, nuts and packing. These three
boilers were arranged in a row, with a furnace of masonry around them, the fire
being built under, not in them, and the heat passed around and not through them,
as at the present time. We know nothing of the style of the engine used, but it
was doubtless one of the low-pressure stationary class, so common thirty years
ago. The mill contained one run of burs, with a probable capacity of ten barrels
of flour per day. These burs were very peculiar in their composition, being made
of small pieces of granite, united with a very tenacious and enduring cement;
were about four feet in diameter and one and one-half feet in thickness, and
encircled by two strong bands of iron. The saw was what is known among mill-men
as a "sash" saw, i. e., one which is operated in a perpendicular position,
similar to what they now call a "Mully" saw. It did not do the work nearly as
fast as a circular saw, but it was far ahead of the old methods, either in a pit
or with water or wind power. All this machinery which we have just described was
nicely housed in a building erected of the lumber purchased by the Captain at
Santa Cruz. Of course there were several other appliances which we have not
thought necessary to describe in detail, such as flour bolts, log carriages,
etc., but as far as it went, and for its capacity, the mill was complete in
every respect. As stated above it was located at the foot of a bald hill, on the
brow of which huge redwoods grew. As soon as Captain Smith landed he set men to
work at cutting logs at this point, and as fast as chopped they were rolled down
to the mill, This style of conveying logs from the woods to the mill was adhered
to as long as Capt. Smith had the establishment. Upon the completion of the
mill, and when it was found that all of its machinery worked to a charm,
invitations were issued to the people of the surrounding country. Men of every
nationality were there to see the marvelous machine put into operation. It was
probably the first steam engine that quite a large portion of those present had
ever witnessed in operation. Let us contemplate that throng for a moment. Here
we see the " ranchero," with his broad " sombrero" overshadowing him completely,
his red bandana kerchief tied loosely about his neck, his bosom and arms bared
to the sun, his broad-checked pantaloons showing out in bold relief, mounted on
a fiery, half-tamed "caballo de silla." By his side, mounted also on just as
wild a steed, is the " vaquero," with "sombrero" for his head, kerchief for his
neck, "serrapa" thrown loosely about his shoulders, his horse caparisoned as
befitting a man in his position, his long "lariata" hanging in graceful coils
from his saddle-horn, with mammoth spurs dangling from his heels, the bells of
which chimed harmoniously with the mellifluous hum of the conversation, and the
rowels of which served to designate the standing of the wearer in the community.
Then there was the old-time soldier, with a dress-parade air about his every
look and action; and the grant-holders were there, and the Alcaldes, and all the
the dignitaries within reach of the invitation. It was a grand holiday occasion
for all, a day of sight-seeing not soon to be forgotten. Everything being in
readiness, the hopper was filled with wheat brought from a neighboring ranch.
The steam is turned on slowly, and the ponderous fly-wheel commences to revolve.
The entire mass of machinery begins to vibrate with the power imparted to it by
the mighty agent curbed and bound in the iron boilers. AH is motion, and the hum
and whir of machinery is added to the babel of tongues, while amid exclamations
of surprise and delight the grain is sent through the swirling burs into the
bolts, and at length is reproduced before their wondering gaze as "flor de
harina"—fine, white flour. Then a monster redwood log is placed upon the
carriage, and the saw put in motion; slowly but surely it whips its way through
it," and the outside slab is thrown aside. The log is passed back, and again
approaches the saw. This time a beautiful plank is produced. Again and again is
the operation repeated until, in a marvelously short period of time, the whole
log is reduced to boards of different widths and thicknesses. While this is
being done and admired by all, the first bags of flour have been sent to the
house near by and converted into most excellent and nutritious bread. A beeve
has been slaughtered, abundance of venison is at hand, and a sumptuous repast
has been prepared, to which all are now invited to betake themselves. After the
feast comes the toasts. The health and prosperity of the enterprizing Yankee
host is drank in many an overflowing bumper. After dinner speeches were indulged
in, and General M. G. Vallejo being there, and being the head and front of the
native Californians present, was called upon to make some observations. In this
speech he remarked that there were those present who would see more steam
engines in the beautiful and fertile valleys of California than there would be
soldiers. Surely was he endowed with prophetic power! He now has the
satisfaction and pleasure of knowing how truly this remark has been verified.
The repast and the sequent festivities over the company of sight-seers disperse,
either to their homes or to some neighboring rancho, where a grand fandango is
indulged in till the gray dawn steals upward over the far-away Sierras.
The sketch of the pioneer mill of Sonoma county would be incomplete without
following it through the devious windings of the road it has traveled to the
present time. Capt. Smith continued to operate it until the year 1850. During
this time he sawed a vast amount of lumber, drawing it 'a distance of five or
six miles to Bodega bay for shipment, some of which he exported to the Sandwich
Islands, while he exchanged lumber for the tract of land known as the " Blucher
" rancho. In Nov. 1849 he laid aside the sash saw and placed in its stead a
circular saw. In 1850 Capt. Smith leased the entire tract of timber land on the
Bodega rancho to Messrs. Hanks & Mudge for the term of ninety-nine years, for
the sum of fifty thousand dollars. They took the saw out of the old building,
and with new engines to run it, put it in a mill situated further up in the
heart of the redwoods. After locating at different points most convenient to the
timber, the mill was eventually taken to Mendocino county. In 1854 the Smith
mill building was destroyed by fire, and it was never rebuilt, its projector and
sustainer soon after being called to pass the dark river. One of the boilers
does duty at the present time as a "heater" at Duncan's mill. The visitor of
to-day at the old mill site finds the excavation and the well of water in it;
two of the old boilers lie mouldering and rusting on the ground in the
excavation, while willow trees have grown up beside them to the height of
twenty-five feet. At the end of the boilers one of the burs lies slowly but
surely crumbling back to mother earth; time and weather have eaten great holes
in it, and the surface that once was able to withstand the steeled edge of the
millwright's pick is now as soft as sandstone. One of the iron bands which
surrounded it in its day of strength and glory has rusted until it has parted
and dropped away from the stone, while the other is fast going to decay.
Curiosity-seekers are ever and anon taking pieces of the granite and cement, and
soon nothing will be left to tell of it. On the bank lies the smoke-stack, while
here and there stands a post used in the foundation. A few logs which were
brought to the mill thirty years ago, but which were never sawed, still lie
where they were placed in that long ago time, mute reminders of what was, and
what is, links uniting the strange historical past with the living present. To
Sonoma county, therefore, is the honor due of the introduction of this great
element of wealth and progress.
General Vallejo thus describes that memorable visit: "I distinctly remember
having predicted on that occasion that before many years there would be more
steam-engines than soldiers in California. The successors of Smith have not only
proved the truth of my words, but have almost verified the remark of my
compatriot, General Jose Castro, at Monterey, that ' the North Americans were so
enterprising a people that if it were proposed, they were quite capable of
changing the color of the stars.' Castro's discourse was made with no sympathy
for the North American, since it was well known that he was no friend to either
Government or citizens; yet I believe that if General Castro had lived until
to-day, he would unite with me in praise of that intelligent nation which opens
her doors to the industrious citizens of the whole world, under the standard of
true fiberty."
Up to this time there had been twenty-three grants of land confirmed to their
original owners inside the boundaries of Sonoma county. Of these the largest was
the Petaluma grant, situated mostly in what is now known as Vallejo and Sonoma
townships. It included all that vast tract, comprising at least seventy-five
thousand acres, which lay between Sonoma creek on the east, San Pablo bay on the
south, and Petaluma creek on the west, possessing the most fertile soil in the
county, if not in the entire State. Every acre of it was tillable, and might
have been most easily enclosed. The tract is now assessed for not less than
three millions of dollars. It was originally granted to General M. G. Vallejo.
Of the foreigners who had acquired land up to the period now under treatment,
among the most notable were Jacob P. Leese, Henry D. Fitch, Juan P. Cooper, John
Wilson and Mark West. Leese, Fitch and Cooper were brothers-in-law of General
Vallejo. The site whereon now stands the county seat—the flourishing town of
Santa Rosa— was granted to Mrs. Carrillo, the mother of the well-known Julio
Carrillo, who is still a resident of that city; while the country lying between
Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, in Analy township, was the property of Joaquin
Carrillo, a brother of Mrs. Vallejo. The Bodega ranch, which contained
thirty-five thousand four hundred and eighty-seven acres, was granted to Captain
Stephen Smith, who is described as "a remarkable man, and was a fine type of the
pioneer—honest, hospitable and generous to a fault." Captain Juan B. Cooper,
another sailor, received the "El Molino," or Mill ranch, so named from a mill
which he had erected on it in 1834, but which was washed away by a freshet in
1840-41; Manuel Torres got the Munez ranch; and the Rancho de Herman, in the
northwest of the county, was granted to a number of Teutons, where they
appropriately named the stream running through their property the Valhalla.
Jasper O'Farrel exchanged a ranch in Marin county for the Canada de Jonive,
situated in Analy township; and acquired, by purchase or otherwise, from
McIntosh, the tract in Bodega township known as the Estero Americano. Mark West
received six thousand six hundred and sixty-three acres, between the two streams
now called Mark West creek and Santa Rosa creek.
In another portion of our work will be found a fuller record of these Spanish
grants. The above named are sufficient to note in this place. Says Mr. Robert
Thompson "The total number of acres included in all the grants in the county was
four hundred thousand, one hundred and forty-three, just less than one-half its
whole area as now bounded, which is estimated at eight hundred and fifty
thousand acres. All the valleys we have elsewhere described were covered by
grants without an exception. The public land all lay in the low hills, on the
border of the valleys, and in the mountains. Fortunately for the future welfare
of the county, these grants were subdivided and sold in small tracts at a very
early day. The titles to most of them were settled without much dispute or
delay; and the subdivided lands were purchased by industrious and enterprising
farmers, who have since lived upon and improved them. They have converted the
long-horned worthless Spanish cattle into the short-horn, and the mustang horse
into the thorough-bred, and the pastures of this worthless stock into homes of
beauty and teeming abundance. With one exception all the grants have been sold
in small tracts, and that is the Cotate ranch, on the plain between Petaluma and
Santa Rosa. This tract belongs to an estate, and under the will can not be
divided until the youngest child comes of age. This is the largest farm in the
county, the railroad passing through it for six miles. The dairy is supplied
with the milk of two hundred and fifty cows; there are five hundred head of
cattle on the place, and ten thousand head of sheep; each cow averages daily one
pound and a quarter of butter during the season, and the sheep shear an average
of six pounds of wool each."
We have already in the commencement of our annals of Mendocino and Russian
River townships, entered upon the subject of the primitive dwellings in vogue
among the pioneers of 1840 and after; we would now call attention to a few of
their earlier implements and conveniences as well as one of these antique
dwellings of another style, and in describing those adopted and made by Cyrus
Alexander we but tell the story of the rest, for the experiences of each were
almost identical. Mention has been made of the adobe houses of the early
Californians. Let us consider one of these primitive habitations: Its
construction was beautiful in its extreme simplicity. The walls were fashioned
of large sun-dried bricks, made of that black loam known to settlers in the
Golden State as adobe soil, mixed with straw, with no particularity as to
species, measuring about eighteen inches square and three in thickness; these
were cemented with mud, plastered within with the same substance, and
white-washed when finished. The rafters and joists were of rough timber, with
the bark simply peeled off and placed in the requisite position, while the
residence of the wealthier classes were roofed with tiles of a convex shape,
placed so that the one should overlap the other and thus make a watershed; or,
later, with shingles, the poor contenting themselves with a thatch of tule,
fastened down with thongs of bullocks' hide. The former modes of covering were
expensive, and none but the opulent could afford the luxury of tiles. When
completed, however, these mud dwellings will stand the brunt, and wear and tear
of many decades, as can be evidenced by the number which are still occupied in
out-of- the-way corners of the county.
In order to facilitate transportation it was found necessary to construct
some kind of a vehicle, which was done in this manner: The two wheels were
sections of a log with a hole drilled or bored through the center, the axle
being a pole sharpened at each extremity for spindles, with a hole and pin at
either end so as to prevent the wheels from slipping off. Another pole fastened
to the middle of the axle, served the purpose of a tongue. Upon this framework
was set, or fastened, a species of wicker-work, framed of sticks bound together
with strips of hide. The beasts of burden in use were oxen, of which there were
a vast number. These were yoked with a stick across the forehead, notched and
crooked, so as to fit the head closely, and the whole tied with rawhide. Such
was the primitive cart of the time. The plow was a still more peculiar affair.
It consisted of a long piece of timber which served the purpose of a beam, to
the end of which a handle was fastened: a mortise was next chiseled so as to
admit the plow, which was a short stick with a natural crook, having a small
piece of iron fastened on one end of it. With this crude implement was the
ground upturned, while the branch of a convenient tree served the purposes of a
harrow. Fences there were none so that crops might be protected; ditches were
therefore dug, and the crests of the sod covered with the branches of trees to
warn away the numerous bands of cattle and horses, and prevent their intrusion
upon the newly sown grain. When the crops were ripe they were cut with a sickle,
or any other convenient weapon, and then it became neeessary [sic] to thresh it.
Now for the modus operandi. The floor of the corral into which it was customary
to drive the horses and cattle in order to lasso them, from constant use had
become hardened. Into this inclosure the grain would be piled, and upon it the
manatha, or band of mares, would be turned loose to tramp out the grain. The
wildest horses, or mayhap the colts which had only been driven but once, and
then to be branded, would be turned adrift upon the pile of straw, when would
ensue a scene of the wildest confusion, the excited animals being driven, amidst
the yelling of the vaqueros and the cracking of whips, here, there and
everywhere, around, across and lengthwise, until the whole was trampled, leaving
naught but the grain and chaff. The most difficult part of the operation,
however, was the separating of the grain from the chaff. Owing to the length of
the dry season, there was no urgent haste to effect this; therefore when the
wind was high enough, the Indians, who soon fell into the ways of the white
pioneers, more especially where they were paid in kind and kindness, would toss
the trampled mass into the air with large wooden forks, cut from the adjacent
oaks, and the wind carry away the lighter chaff leaving the heavier grain. With
a favorable wind several bushels of wheat could thus be winnowed in the course
of one day. Strange as it may appear, it is declared to be the fact, that grain
thus winnowed was much cleaner than it is to-day. Mention has elsewhere been
made of the necessity which compelled the tanning of hides from which clothes
might be made. Let us now relate the following ingenious device whereby Mrs.
Alexander was wont to make yarn; a novel spinning-wheel truly. A large bowl was
procured with its inner surface polished to a great degree of smoothness; when
ready for operation, it would rest in the lap of the manipulator, she occupying
a low seat. In the bowl was twirled or spun a spindle whittled into such a shape
as to perform its movements easily, its form being that of a peg-top. While this
was kept in motion with one hand, the wool would be payed out with the other,
thus spinning the yarn, enough of which could be prepared in one day to knit a
pair of socks.
We have more than once referred, to the vast bands of cattle that roamed
about at will over the plains and among the mountains. Once a year these had to
be driven in and rodeod, i. e. branded, a work of considerable danger, and one
requiring much nerve. The occasion of rodeoing, however, was the signal for a
feast; a large beeve would be slaughtered, and all would make merry until it was
consumed. The rule or law concerning branded cattle in those early da^s was very
strict. If any one was known to have branded his neighbor's cattle with his own
mark, common usage called upon him to return in kind fourfold. Not only did this
apply to cattle alone, but to all other kinds of live stock.
The early settlers in Sonoma county, but more especially those in the hilly
districts, had always been more or less molested by wild animals, chief among
them being the grizzly bear. Up in the hills about Healdsburg Cyrus Alexander
had his share of these annoyances; let us record one of his experiences: He was
then the proud possessor of a number of hogs, and hogs were but few in the
county, one being worth about seventy-five dollars. It is well known that the
grizzly has a most unjudaic partiality for pork, and one especially had evinced
this taste among Mr. Alexander's pigs. He was a huge monster, and many plans had
been laid to effect his capture, but without success. One night the "old fellow"
had dispatched a fat hog, but for some unknown reason he left an uneaten half of
his supper under the shade of a live oak. A war, offensive and defensive, was
now declared against Bruin; it was premised that he would return on the
following night to finish his repast, or, to lay in another supply. Alexander
and his men therefore drove all the porkers that could be found into a pen, and
gave them time to quiet down, which being attained, a gap was left in the
gate-way to the pen so that stragglers could find ready ingress. The watchers
next stationed themselves, gun in hand, in such positions, that they could keep
within view both the half eaten pig and the pen. The night was dark and
rainy—just such an one as Bruin would select for a foraging expedition. Nearly
three hours after the sentinels had taken their posts, the hogs in the pen
commenced to squeal and give signs of being disturbed, the watchers swiftly ran
in that direction and sure enough there was Mr. Grizzly at work among the pigs;
he had stationed himself at the entrance bars, and as each unsuspecting porker
would approach so sure would he up paw and slap him over the back; two he had
killed outright while several more had been much lacerated and mangled. The wily
rascal had found out that by frightening the hogs they would attempt to escape,
therefore he stationed himself at the only means of exit. Unluckily, as he was
neared by the party, he took to the mountains without giving the chance for a
shot; however, future plans were arranged for his reception. Alexander
determined to build a "log cabin bear trap." This construction was eight by ten
feet in size and took several hard days' work to complete. A hole was next dug
and laid with a log floor upon which the trap should rest, the corners being
notched and pinned in such a manner that the bear could not force his paws
through. A large and strong trap-door was next made, but before it was completed
a tempting bait was set so as to lure Bruin to the spot—the ruse was
successful—he came, took possession of the meat and returned to his lair. The
door being now finished, the trap was put into working order and once more
baited, this time with an entire pig, the door was hung upon a double trigger,
after the manner of the "box skunk traps" of to-day, and was found to work
admirably. Patience did the rest. In the morning, the door was down and the trap
occupied by a monster weighing nine hundred pounds, who soon received his
quietus with a rifle bullet.
In the early part of 1839 a company was made up in St. Louis, Missouri, to
cross the plains to California, consisting of D. G. Johnson, Charles Klein,
David D. Dutton, mentioned earlier as having coming to the country with Captain
Smith, and William Wiggins. Fearing the treachery of the Indians this little
band determined to await the departure of a party of traders in the employ of
the American Fur Company, on their annual tour to the Rocky Mountains. At
Westport they were joined by Messrs. Wright, Gegger, a Doctor Wiselzenius and
his German companion, and Peter Lassen, as also two missionaires with their
wives and hired man, en route for Oregon, as well as a lot of what were termed
fur trappers, bound for the mountains, the entire company consisting of
twenty-seven men and two women.
The party proceeded on their journey and in due time arrived at the Platte
river, but here their groceries and breadstuff gave out; happily the country was
well stocked with food, the bill of fare consisting henceforward of buffalo,
venison, cat-fish, suckers, trout, salmon, duck, pheasant, sage-fowl, beaver,
hare, horse, grizzly bear, badger and dog. The historian of this expedition thus
describes this latter portion of the menu. "As much misunderstanding seems to
prevail in regard to the last animal alluded to, a particular description of it
may not be uninteresting. It is, perhaps, somewhat larger than the ground
squirrel of California, is subterranean and gregarious in its habits, living in
'villages;' and from a supposed resemblance in the feet, as well as in the
spinal termination, to that of the canine family, it is in popular language
known as the prairie dog. But in the imposing technology of the mountain
graduate it is styled the canus prairie cuss, because its cussed holes so often
cause the hunter to be unhorsed when engaged in the chase."
After enduring a weary journey, accompanied by the necessary annoyances from
treacherous and pilfering Sioux, hail-storms, sand-storms, rain and
thunder-storms, our voyagers arrived at Fort Hall, where they were disappointed
at not being able to procure a guide to take them to California. This was almost
a death-blow to the hopes of the intrepid travelers; but having learned of a
settlement on the Willamette river, they concluded to proceed thither in the
following spring, after passing the winter at this fort. Here Klein and Doctor
Wiselzenius determined to retrace their steps; thus the party was now reduced to
five in number—Johnson going ahead and leaving for the Sandwich Islands. In
September, 1839, the company reached Oregon, and sojourned there during the
winter of that year; but in May, 1840, a vessel arrived with Missionaries from
England, designing to touch at California on her return, Mr. William Wiggans,
now of Monterey, the narrator of this expedition, and his three companions from
Missouri, among whom was David D. Dutton, at present a resident of Vacaville
township, in Solano county, got on board; but Mr. W., not having a dollar, saw
no hope to get away; as a last resort, he sent to one of the passengers, a
comparative stranger, for the loan of sixty dollars, the passage-money, when, to
his great joy and surprise, the money was furnished—a true example of the
spontaneous generosity of those early days. There were three passengers from
Oregon, and many others who were "too poor to leave." In June, they took passage
in the "Lausenne," and were three weeks in reaching Baker's bay, a distance of
only ninety miles. On July 3d, they left the mouth of the Columbia, and, after
being out thirteen days, arrived at Bodega, in Sonoma county, then a harbor in
possession of the Russians. Here a dilemma arose of quite a threatening
character. The Mexican Commandant sent a squad of soldiers to prevent the party
from landing, as they wished to do, for the captain of the vessel had refused to
take them farther on account of want of money. At this crisis, the Russian
Governor arrived, and ordered the soldiers to leave, be shot down, or go to
prison; they, therefore, beat a retreat. Here were our travelers at a
stand-still, with no means of proceeding on their journey, or of finding their
way out of the inhospitable country; they, therefore, penned the following
communication to the American Consul, then at Monterey:—
" PORT BODEGA, July 25, 1840.
"To the American Consul of California—
"DEAR SIR:—We, the undersigned citizens of the United States, being desirous
to land in the country, and having been refused a passport, and been opposed by
the Government, we write to you, sir, for advice, and claim your protection.
Being short of funds, we are not able to proceed further on the ship. We have
concluded to land under the protection of the Russians; we will remain there
fifteen days, or until we receive an answer from you, which we hope will be as
soon as the circumstances of the case will permit. We have been refused a
passport from General Vallejo. Our object is to get to the settlements, or to
obtain a pass to return to our own country. Should we receive no relief, we will
take up our arms and travel, consider ourselves in an enemy's country, and
defend ourselves with our guns.
"We subscribe ourselves,
"Most respectfully, "DAVID DUTTON,
"JOHN STEVENS.
"PETER LASSEN,
"WM. WIGGINS,
"J. WRIGHT."
We have above mentioned the names of those intrepid pioneers who came to
Sonoma and settled—a list of the earliest of these has been given in its proper
place. In our histories of the townships such matters have received the most
marked treatment, and leave but little to be dealt with in the general history.
Prior to the discovery of gold but comparatively few arrived, and anterior to
the "Bear Flag" times their number could be counted by tens. There were these
trusty pioneers, Cyrus Alexander (1840); Frank Bidwell (1843), and Mose Carson
(1845,) in Mendocino township. In Analy, there were John Walker, and the hale,
hearty and most genial host, James M. Hudspeth (1843). In Sonoma there was
General Vallejo (1835), now one of America's most loyal citizens. William
Benitz, and Ernest Rufus (1845), had been in Salt Point. Frederick Starke (1845)
had settled in Vallejo township, while throughout the county there are many
names we have been unable to trace.
With the year 1846 more emigrants mounted the Sierras, and descended into the
California valleys, some to remain; but there were those who never arrived, as
the following interesting relation of the sufferings of the ill-fated Donner
party will exemplify:—
Tuthills's History of California tells us: "Of the overland emigration to
California, in 1846, about eighty wagons took a new route, from fort Bridger,
around the south end of Great Salt Lake. The pioneers of the party arrived in
good season over the mountains; but Mr. Reed's and Mr. Donner's companies opened
a new route through the desert, lost a month's time by their explorations, and
reached the foot of the Truckee pass, in the Sierra Nevada, on the 31st of
October, instead of the 1st, as they had intended. The snow began to fall on the
mountains two or three weeks earlier than usual that year, and was already piled
up in the Pass that they could not proceed. They attempted it repeatedly, but
were as often forced to return. One party built their cabins near the Truckee
Lake, killed their cattle, and went into winter quarters. The other (Donner's)
party, still believed that they could thread the pass, and so failed to build
their cabins before more snow came and buried their cattle alive. Of course
these were soon utterly destitute of food, for they could not tell where the
cattle were buried, and there was no hope of game on a desert so piled with snow
that nothing without wings could move. The number of those who were thus
storm-stayed, at the very threshold of the land whose winters are one long
spring, was eighty, of whom thirty were females, and several children. The Mr.
Donner who had charge of one company, was an Illinoisian, sixty years of age, a
man of high respectability and abundant means. His wife was a woman of education
and refinement, and much younger than he.
During November it snowed thirteen days; during December and January, eight
days in each. Much of the time the tops of the cabins were below the snow level.
It was six weeks after the halt was made that a party of fifteen, including
five women and two Indians who acted as guides, set out on snow-shoes to cross
the mountains, and give notice to the people of the California settlements of
the condition of their friends. At first the snow was so light and feathery that
even in snow-shoes they sank nearly a foot at every step. On the second day they
crossed the 'divide,' finding the snow at the summit twelve feet deep. Pushing
forward with the courage of despair, they made from four to eight miles a day.
Within a week they got entirely out of provisions; and three of them,
succumbing to cold, weariness, and starvation, had died. Then a heavy snowstorm
came on, which compelled them to lie still, buried between their blankets under
the snow, for thirty-six hours. By the evening of the tenth day three more had
died, and the living had been four days without food, The horrid alternative was
accepted—they took the flesh from the bones of their dead, remained in camp two
days to dry it, and then pushed on.
On New Years, the sixteenth day since leaving Truckee Lake, they were toiling
up a steep mountain. Their feet were frozen. Every step was marked with blood.
On the second of January, their food again gave out. On the third, they had
nothing to eat but the strings of their snow-shoes. On the fourth, the Indians
eloped, justly suspicious that they might be sacrificed for food. On the fifth,
they shot a deer, and that day one of their number died. Soon after three others
died, and every death now eked out the existence of the survivors. On the
seventeenth, all gave out, and concluded their wanderings useless, except one.
He, guided by two stray friendly Indians, dragged himself on till he reached a
settlement on Bear river. By midnight the settlers had found and were treating
with all Christian kindness what remained of the little company that, after more
than a month of the most terrible sufferings, had that morning halted to die.
The story that there were emigrants perishing on the other side of the snowy
barrier ran swiftly down the Sacramento valley to New Helvetia, and Captain
Sutter, at his own expense, fitted out an expedition of men and of mules laden
with provisions, to cross the mountains and relieve them. It ran on to San
Francisco, and the people, rallying in public meeting, raised fifteen hundred
dollars, and with it fitted out another expedition. The naval commandant of the
port fitted out still others.
The first of the relief parties reached Truckee lake on the nineteenth of
February. Ten of the people in the nearest camp were dead. For four weeks those
who were still alive had fed only on bullocks' hides. At Donner's camp they had
but one hide remaining. The visitors left a small supply of provisions with the
twenty-nine whom they could not take with them, and started back with the
remainder. Four of the children they carried on their backs. Another of the
relief parties reached Truckee lake on the first of March-They immediately
started back with seventeen of the sufferers; but, a heavy snow storm overtaking
them, they left all, except three of the children, on the road. Another party
went after those who were left on the way; found three of them dead, and the
rest sustaining life by feeding on the flesh of the dead.
The last relief party reached Donner's camp late in April, when the snows had
melted so much that the earth appeared in spots. The main cabin was empty, but
some miles distant they found the last survivor of all lying on the cabin floor
smoking his pipe. He was ferocious in aspect, savage and repulsive in manner.
His camp-kettle was over the fire and in it his meal of human flesh preparing.
The stripped bones of his fellow-sufferers lay around him, He refused to return
with the party, and only consented when he saw there was no escape.
Mrs. Donner was the last to die. Her husband's body, carefully laid out and
wrapped in a sheet, was found at his tent. Circumstances led to the suspicion
that the survivor had killed Mrs. Donner for her flesh and her money, and when
he was threatened with hanging, and the rope tightened around his neck, he
produced over five hundred dollars in gold, which, probably, he had appropiated
from her store."
In relation to this dreary story of suffering, this portion of our history
will be concluded by the narration of the prophetic dream of George Yount,
attended, as it was, with such marvelous results.
At this time, (the winter of 1846) while residing in Napa county, of which,
as has been already remarked, he was the pioneer settler, he dreamt that a party
of emigrants were snow-bound in the Sierra Nevadas, high up in the mountains,
where they were suffering the most distressing privations from cold and want of
food. The locality where his dream had placed these unhappy mortals, he had
never visited, yet so clear was his vision that he described the sheet of water
surrounded by lofty peaks, deep-covered with snow, while on every hand towering
pine trees reared their heads far above the limitless waste. In his sleep he saw
the hungry human beings ravenously tear the flesh from the bones of their fellow
creatures, slain to satisfy their craving appetites, in the midst of a gloomy
desolation. He dreamed his dream on three successive nights, after which he
related it to others, among whom were a few who had been on hunting expeditions
in the Sierras. These wished for a precise description of the scene foreshadowed
to him. They recognized the Truckee, now the Donner lake. On the strength of
this recognition Mr. Yount fitted out a search expedition, and, with these men
as guides, went to the place indicated, and, prodigious to relate, was one of
the successful relieving parties to reach the ill-fated Donner party.
Of those who were fortunate to press the wished-for peaceful glades with
their weary feet were the Gordons, W.J. Morrow of Mendocino, (1848;) Louis.
Adler of Sonoma, (1848;) and some others whose names will be found elsewhere
Who does not think of 1848 with feelings almost akin to inspiration?
The year 1848 is one wherein reached the nearest attainment of the discovery
of the Philosopher's stone, which it has been the lot of Christendom to witness:
On January 19th gold was discovered, at Coloma, on the American River, and the,
most unbelieving and coldblooded were, by the middle of spring, irretrievably
bound in its facinating meshes. The wonder is that the discovery was not made
earlier. Emigrants, settlers, hunters, " practical miners, scientific exploring
parties, had camped on, settled in, hunted through, dug in and ransacked the
region, yet never found it; the discovery was entirely accidental. Franklin
Tuthill, in his History of California, tells the story in these words: " Captain
Sutter had contracted with James W. Marshall, in September, 1847, for the
construction of a sawmill, in Coloma. In the course of the winter a dam and race
were made, but, when the water was let on, the tail-race was too narrow. To
widen and deepen it, Marshall let in a strong current of water directly to the
race, which bore a large body of mud and gravel to the foot.
On the 19th of January, 1848, Marshall observed some glittering particles in
the race, which he was curious enough to examine. He called live carpenters on
the mill to see them; but though they talked over the possibility of its being
gold, the vision did not inflame them. Peter L. Weimar claims that he was with
Marshall when the first piece of "yellow stuff" was picked up. It was a pebble,
weighing six pennyweights and eleven grains. Marshall gave it to Mrs. Weimar,
and asked her to boil it in saleratus water and see what came of it. As she was
making soap at the time, she pitched it into the soap kettle. About twenty-four
hours afterwards it was fished out and found all the brighter for its boiling.
Marshall, two or three weeks later, took the specimens below, and gave them
to Sutter, to have them tested. Before Sutter had quite satisfied himself as to
their nature, he went up to the mill, and, with Marshall, made a treaty with the
Indians, buying of them their titles to the region round about, for a certain
amount of goods. There was an effort made to keep the secret inside the little
circle that knew it, but it soon leaked out. They had many misgivings and much
discussion whether they were not making themselves ridiculous; yet by common
consent all began to hunt, though with no great spirit, for the "yellow stuff"
that might prove such a prize.
In February, one of the party went to Yerba Buena, taking some of the dust
with him. Fortunately he stumbled upon Isaac Humphrey, an old Georgian
gold-miner, who at the first look at the specimens, said they were gold, and
that the diggings must be rich. Humphrey tried to induce some of his friends to
go up with him to the mill, but they thought it a crazy expedition, and left him
to go alone. He reached there on the 7th of March. A few were hunting for gold,
but rather lazily, and the work on the mill went on as usual. Next day he began
"prospecting" and soon satisfied himself that he had struck a rich placer. He
made a rocker, and then commenced work in earnest.
A few days later, a Frenchman, Baptiste, formerly a miner in Mexico, left the
lumber he was sawing for Sutter at Weber's, ten miles east of Coloma, and came
to the mill. He agreed with Humphrey that the region was rich, and, like him,
took to the pan and the rocker. These two men were the competent practical
teachers of the crowd that flocked in to see how they did it. The lesson was
easy, the process simple. An hour's observation fitted the least experienced for
working to advantage.
Slowly and surely, however, did these discoveries creep into the minds of
those at home and abroad; the whole civilized world was set agog with the
startling news from the shores of the Pacific. Young and old were seized with
the California fever; high and low, rich and poor, were infected by it;. the
prospect was altogether too gorgeous to contemplate. Why, they could actually
pick up a fortune for the seeking it! Positive affluence was within the grasp of
the weakest; the very coast was shining with the bright metal, which could be
obtained by picking it out with a knife.
Says Tuthill: Before such considerations as these, the conservatism of the
most stable bent. Men of small means, whose tastes inclined them to keep out of
all hazardous schemes and uncertain enterprises, thought they saw duty beckoning
them around the Horn, or across the plains. In many a family circle, where
nothing but the strictest economy could make the two ends of the year meet,
there were long and anxious consultations, which resulted in selling off a piece
of the homestead or the woodland, or the choicest of the stock, to tit out one
sturdy representative to make a fortune for the family. Hundreds of farms were
mortgaged to buy tickets for the land of gold. Some insured their lives and
pledged their policies for an outfit. The wild boy was packed off hopefully. The
black sheep of the flock was dismissed with a blessing, and the forlorn hope
that, with a change of skie3 there might be a change of manners. The stay of the
happy household said, "Good-bye, but only for a year or two," to his charge.
Unhappy husbands availed themselves cheerfully of this cheap and reputable
method of divorce trusting Time to mend or mar matters in their absence. Here
was a chance to begin life anew. Whoever had begun it badly, or made slow
headway on the right course, might start again in a region where Fortune had not
learned to coquette with and dupe her wooers.
The adventurers generally formed companies, expecting to go overland or by
sea to the mines, and to dissolve partnership only after a first trial of luck
together in the "diggings." In the Eastern and Middle States they would buy up
an old whaling ship, just ready to be condemned to the wreckers, put in a cargo
of such stuff as they must need themselves, and provisions, tools, or goods,
that must be sure to bring returns enough to make the venture profitable. Of
course, the whole fleet rushing together through the Golden Gate made most of
these ventures profitless, even when the guess was happy as to the kind of
supplies needed by the Californians. It can hardly be believed what sieves of
ships started, and how many of them actually made the voyage. Little
river-steamers, that had scarcely tasted salt water before, were fitted out to
thread the Straits of Magellan, and these were welcomed to the bays and rivers
of California, whose waters some of them ploughed and vexed busily for years
afterwards.
Then steamers, as well as all manner of sailing vessels, began to be
advertised to run to the Isthmus; and they generally went crowded to excess with
passengers, some of whom were fortunate enough, after the toilsome ascent of the
Chagres river, and the descent either on mules or on foot to Panama, not to be
detained more than a month waiting for the craft that had rounded the Horn, and
by which they were ticketed to proceed to San Francisco. But hundreds broke down
under the horrors of the voyage in the steerage; contracted on the Isthmus the
low typhoid fevers incident to tropical marshy regions, and died.
The overland emigrants, unless they came too late in the season to the
Sierras, seldom suffered as much, as they had no great variation of climate on
their route. They had this advantage, too, that the mines lay at the end of
their long road; while the sea-faring, when they landed, had still a weary
journey before them. Few tarried longer at San Francisco than was necessary to
learn how utterly useless were the curious patent mining contrivances they had
brought, and to replace them with the pick, shovel, pan, and cradle. If any one
found himself destitute of funds to go farther, there was work enough to raise
them by. Labor was honorable; and the daintiest dandy, if he were honest, could
not resist the temptation to work where wages were so high, pay so prompt, and
employers so flush.
There were not lacking in San Francisco, grumblers who had tried the mines
and satisfied themselves that it cost a dollar's worth of sweat and time, and
living exclusively on bacon, beans, and "slap-jacks," to pick a dollar's worth
of gold out of rock, or river bed, or dry ground; but they confessed that the
good luck which they never enjoyed abode with others. Then the display of dust,
slugs, and bars of gold in the public gambling places; the sight of men arriving
every day freighted with belts full, which they parted with so freely as men
only can when they have got it easily; the testimony of the miniature rocks; the
solid nuggets brought down from above every few days, whose size and value rumor
multiplied according to the number of her tongues. The talk, day and night,
unceasingly and exclusively of " gold, easy to get and hard to hold," inflamed
all new comers with the desire to hurry on and share the chances. They chafed at
the necessary detentions. They nervously feared that all would be gone before
they should arrive.
The prevalent impression was that the placers would give out in a year or
two. Then it behoved him who expected to gain much to be among the earliest on
the ground. When experiment was so fresh in the field, one theory was about as
good as another. An hypothesis that lured men perpetually farther up the gorges
of the foot-hills, and to explore the canons of the mountains, was this:—that
the gold which had been found in the beds of rivers, or in gulches, through
which streams once ran, must have been washed down from the places of original
deposit farther up the mountains. The higher up the gold-hunter went, then, the
nearer he approached the source of supply.
To reach the mines from San Francisco, the course lay up San Pablo and Suisun
bays, and the Sacramento—not then, as now, a yellow, muddy stream, but a river
pellucid and deep—to the landing for Sutter's Fort; and they who made the voyage
in sailing vessels, thought Mount Diablo significantly named, so long it kept
them company and swung its shadow over their path. From Sutter's the most common
route was across the broad, fertile valley to the foot-hills, and up the
American or some one of its tributaries; or, ascending the Sacramento to the
Feather and the Yuba, the company staked off a claim, pitched its tent or
constructed a cabin, and set up its rocker, or began to oust the river from a
portion of its bed. Good luck might hold the impatient adventurers for a whole
season on one bar; bad luck scattered them always farther up.
Roads sought the mining camps, which did not stop to study roads. Traders
came in to supply the camps, and, not very fast, but still to some extent;
mechanics and farmers to supply both traders and miners. So, as if by magic,
within a year or two after the rush began, the map of the country was written
thick with the names of settlements.
Some of these were the nuclei of towns that now flourish and promise to
continue as long as the State is peopled. Others, in districts where the placers
were soon exhausted, were deserted almost as hastily as they were begun, and now
no traces remain of them except the short chimney-stack, the broken surface of
the ground, heaps of cobble-stones, rotting, half-buried sluice boxes, empty
whisky bottles, scattered playing cards and rusty cans.
The "Fall of '49 and Spring of '50" is the era of California history which
the pioneer always speaks of with warmth. It was the free-and-easy age when
every body was flush, and fortune, if not in the palm, was only just beyond the
grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or in cabins scarcely more durable,
and behaved themselves like a generation of bachelors. The family was beyond the
mountains; the restraints of society had not yet arrived. Men threw off the
masks they had lived behind and appeared out in their true character. A few did
not discharge the consciences and convictions they had brought with them. More
rollicked in a perfect freedom from those bonds which good men cheerfully assume
in settled society for the good of the greater number. Some afterwards resumed
their temperate and steady habits, but hosts were wrecked before the period of
their license expired.
Very rarely did men, on their arrival in the country, begin to work at their
old trade or profession. To the mines first. If fortune favored, they soon quit
for more congenial employments. If she frowned, they might depart disgusted, if
they were able; but oftener, from sheer inability to leave the business, they
kept on, drifting from bar to bar, living fast, reckless, improvident,
half-civilized lives; comparatively rich to-day, poor to-morrow; tormented with
rheumatisms and agues, remembering dimly the joys of the old homestead; nearly
weaned from the friends at home, who, because they were never heard from, soon
became like dead men in their memory; seeing little of women and nothing of
churches; self-reliant, yet satisfied that there was nowhere any "show" for
them; full of enterprise in the direct line of their business,"and utterly lost
in the threshhold of any other; genial companions, morbidly craving after
newspapers; good fellows, but short-lived."
Such was the maelstrom which dragged all into its vortex thirty years ago!
Now, almost the entire generation of pioneer miners, who remained in that
business, has passed away, and the survivors feel like men who are lost and old
before their time, among the new comers, who may be just as old, but lack their
long, strange chapter of adventures.
No history of a county in California would be complete without a record of the
rush to this coast at the time of wdtat is so aptly named the "gold fever;"
hence use has been made of the graphic pen-picture quoted above.
Where there were so many homeless, houseless wanderers, the marvel is not so
much that thousands should have succumbed to sickness, as that there was no
epidemic to sweep off the entire reckless population.
After the gold excitement, 'twas then that the State became settled. In the
year 1849 there came and located near Occidental, in Bodego township, William
Howard, whose name is given to the railroad station at that town; and to
Mendocino there came William T. Allen and Hiram W. Smith. In the following year
immigration was still on the increase. Charlie Hudspeth arrived in Bodega;
George Miller to Mendocino; to Russian River, J. W. Calhoon, Henry J. Paul, and
Henry L. Runyon, to Cloverdale, John Dixon; and to Santa Rosa, W. B. Roberts- In
the year 1851 towns commenced to make a start. In Analy township there arrived
W. D. Canfield, William Abels, William Jones, Edward Thurbur, G. Wolff; to
Sonoma came Franklin Sears, Coleman Talbot, and many others; to Cloverdale, J.
G. Heald; to Santa Rosa, John Adams and Joseph Wright; while to Petaluma, which
had then sprung into existence, there came Robert Douglas, J. H. Lewis, James
Singley, Lemarcus Wiatt, Tom Lockwood, George B. Williams. In the following
years settlers still poured in; they found the cultivable portions of the soil
up to their highest expectations, and so they built habitations, and to-day no
more flourishing people are to he found in any part of California.
In the year 1852, as the settlers formed the centers of communities, it was
found imperative to erect churches and provide schools for the instruction of
the comparatively few children that had in their tender youth crossed the plains
with their adventurous parents, or faced the dangers of the deep around "the
Horn," or arrived scatheless from the effects of a Panama fever. Let us note
what was done.
Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY
—OF-
SONOMA COUNTY,
-INCLUDING ITS—
Geology, Topooraphy, Mountains, Valleys and Streams;
—TOGETHER WITH—
A Full and Particular Record of the Spanish Grants; Its Early History and
Settlement, Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources; the Names of Original
Spanish and American Pioneers; a full Political History, Comprising the Tabular
Statements of Elections and Office-holders since the Formation of the County;
Separate Histories of each Township, Showing the Advancement of Grape and Grain
Growing Interests, and Pisciculture;
ALSO, INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE; THE RAISING OF THE BEAR FLAG; AND BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
—AND OF ITS—
Cities, Towns, Churches, Schools, Secret Societies, Etc., Etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO:
ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1880.
File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sonoma/history/1880/historyo/earlyhis133gms.txt
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